This blog is about The Big Picture - information and insights about what goes on in the world outside our borders - and what it means for Americans. Unless otherwise specified, all photos from Deena Stryker archive.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Obama's Nobility, Hillary's Pandering

That's what did it, and alas, it's par for the course.

Democracy means rule by the people, and the people are not usually in condition to recognize true nobility when they see it. Noblesse oblige is what made Obama refrain from nailing Hillary to the wall over the Bosnia affair

"The people" recognized their own weaknesses in HIllary's Bosnia lies, which replaced the "who'se the guy you'd rather drink a beer with" that got Bush elected. Her false smiles and assurances that she will work for the many rather than the few were not recognized as pure pandering.

On Democracy Now former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney who hopes to be the Green Party candidate, made clear she would not have let Hillary off so easily. And the Green Party's platform is what the left wing of the Democracic Party should be touting.

If Obama falls victim to the Clintons' machinations, it will mark the bifurcation point at which the Democratic Party left the American people with no other choice but to revert to the much feared crowd rule implied in the original meaning of democracy. The HBO series on John Adams was a vivid portrayal of the enduring polemic between Adams and Jefferson over the question of power, money and revolution, which is still with us.

Welcome to Otherjones!

The alternative press is replete with despair and ‘hope’, neither of which is helpful. ‘Squawking’ may alleviate some of the pain Americans experience at being identified with a government that brutalizes Others at will, but it doesn’t change the ‘facts on the ground’. As for hope, it is an easy cop-out: in the present state of the world, we can never be certain that tomorrow will come. Whether a barefoot child in Africa or a hedge-fund manager, all of us are the potential victims of hubris.

This blog aims to prepare my readers in ways more important than stockpiling food and bandages for whatever happens, as we transition from an American century to a world century, helping them see through the web of lies with which we are being controlled.

Having lived for years at a time in half a dozen ‘foreign’, countries — learning their languages and histories — I have a unique ability to identify events that bear watching. That life, however, could not provide ‘retirement benefits’, so if you appreciate the unique combination of information and insight that characterizes my work, I hope you will integrate a small donation to Otherjones into your budget.

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P.S. I encourage you to review the archive. You will find many posts from recent years still relevant today.

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If You Had Been Watching....

One of the worst aspects of the US media landscape is its neglect of what goes on in the rest of the world. When I returned from nineteen years of living in France, where I sometimes watched CNN’s excellent coverage of world events, I was surprised that in the US, CNN offered nothing comparable. I called the main editorial office in New York and was told ’Americans aren’t interested in foreign affairs’, revealing one one the reasons why the US government gets away with wreaking havoc around the world: Americans have no information that would prompt them to protest their county’s actions abroad.

The fact is that several countries’ governments — aside from the British — fund international television channels. These include France 24, NHK (Japan) , Al-Jazeera (Qatar) RT (Russia) and Telesur (Latin America). These channels usually broadcast in English, Spanish and Arabic, using native speakers, enabling most people in most parts of the world to hear news that their national outlets do not cover and get a broad window onto the world.

Meanwhile, Americans are told that the channel that is most significant for them, RT, is propaganda!

RT is significant not only because, like the other foreign channels it offers a wide range of programs but because it includes opinions from many well-known Americans who are barred from our own mainstream media.

From time to time I will signal significant news stories covered by these foreign channels that are absent from our own.